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Installing OpenOffice.org 3 onto Ubuntu - Debian package for Linux

15 October 2008

Quick guide to installing the latest version of OpenOffice.org (version 3) on Ubuntu Linux.

The next version of Ubuntu is in about 2 weeks time. I guess that the latest version will include the latest version of OpenOffice.org, but there are no guarentees. If you can't wait then this will give details of how to install by downloading from the OpenOffice.org website.

Downloading

The download is normally at download.openoffice.org, the regular downloads can still be found there, but the preference is to use Bit Torrent. Due to the huge demand to download the latest version the Bit Torrent downloads are at: http://borft.student.utwente.nl/~mike/oo/index2.html. Using Bit Torrent helps with others wanting to download the software and is the only way of downloading the 64 bit version at the moment.

Installing the packages

The download is a single compressed file. This can be opened using the Archive Manager and extracted to an appropriate folder. Resist the temptation to install the resulting packages using the GUI as it won't work due to dependencies with the other packages (although it may be possible to resolve by setting up the extract folder as an additional repository).

Instead launch a terminal window and change to the install directory and enter:

sudo dpkg -i *

The software is now installed and can be launched by running /opt/openoffice.org3/program/soffice

Adding to the Ubuntu Main Menu

This shows how to install the main launcher into the main Ubuntu menu.

Run
System -> Preferences -> Main Menu

Under the appropriate folder (Office) choose New Item

Enter an appropriate name in the Name field e.g. OpenOffice.org 3

Under command enter:
/opt/openoffice.org3/program/soffice

Click on the icon - browse to folder /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps

Then choose an appropriate icon.

Save that and it will appear on the menu. You could also do the same for the individual apps by entering the appropriate command line options e.g. -writer will launch OpenOffice.org writer.

Changing file associations

To change the file associations choose a file associated with OpenOffice.org. Right click and choose Open With - under the custom command enter

/opt/openoffice.org3/program/soffice

This will need to be repeated with the relevant file types.

The easy way

Of course if you don't want all that hassle just wait for your distro to catch-up which I hope will be soon when Ubuntu 8.10 is released.

For more Linux information see the PenguinTutor website.